The new Indian government’s free market agenda is encouraging, but it is fraught with danger

Why investors should be cautious about India

May 29, 2014: 10:33 AM ET

The new Indian government’s free market agenda is encouraging, but it is fraught with danger.

By Sanjay Sanghoee

All hail Narendra Modi?

FORTUNE – Markets around the world rallied recently on Narendra Modi’s historic win as India’s new prime minister. Foreign investors are hopeful he will turn the economy around and have invested $16 billion in India’s markets in the last six months alone. Read more of this post

How to Become an Oligarch

SIMON JOHNSON

Simon Johnson, a former chief economist of the IMF, is a professor at MIT Sloan, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and co-founder of a leading economics blog, The Baseline Scenario. He is the co-author, with James Kwak, of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.
MAY 28, 2014

How to Become an Oligarch

WASHINGTON, DC – Let’s say that you would like to become one of the richest people on the planet, someone with enormous wealth and access to the top rung of political power. This is not an unreasonable aspiration for any fresh college graduate in today’s winner-take-all economies. But how realistic is it? Read more of this post

The Power Players Behind Indonesia’s Presidential Candidates

The Power Players Behind Indonesia’s Presidential Candidates

By Erwida Maulia on 10:32 pm May 29, 2014

1.  Two tickets running in Indonesia’s upcoming presidential election revealed the major compositions of their respective campaign teams last week; one is filled with a vast rank of veteran politicians plus retired Army generals, while the other is likely gathering an army of young intellectuals.

Read more of this post

The Whole World Is Pivoting to China; A Chinese economic crisis or hard landing would have deleterious consequences for many economies

The Whole World Is Pivoting to China

By Jean-Pierre Lehmann on 05:54 pm May 29, 2014

Only halfway through 2014 and it is clear the year will be remembered for a number of seismic shifts occurring in the Asia-Pacific region. Because Asia in the early 21st century is, as Europe was in the early 20th, the center of world power and potential, the implications for the wider global order are considerable. Read more of this post

Free Toasters for China’s Depositors?

Free Toasters for China’s Depositors?

MAY 28, 2014 6:03 PM EDT

By A. Gary Shilling

(This is the third article in a four-part series.)

In part two of this four-part series, I wrote about China’s shadow banks and the government’s efforts to assert more control over them.

The easiest way to curb — even eliminate — the shadow banks is to deregulate interest rates and erase those institutions’ competitive advantage. If inefficient state-owned enterprises were also privatized, they wouldn’t need to borrow at below-market rates and would lose their political and competitive advantages over smaller businesses. Putting all financial institutions under the same regulatory framework would solve a lot of problems, but powerful state-owned enterprises are resisting vigorously. Read more of this post

S. Korea’s unruly household debt woes deepen

S. Korea’s unruly household debt woes deepen

2014.05.27 14:37:39

Household debt in South Korea set another fresh record.

The growth of household debt remains unchecked even as it already broke through the 1,000 trillion ($976.7 billion) won threshold last year.
Outstanding household debt came to 1,024.8 trillion won in late March, up 3.4 trillion won from three months ago, said the Bank of Korea Tuesday.  Read more of this post

Rise of S. Korean style family offices

Rise of S. Korean style family offices

Kang Doo-soon, Seok Min-soo

2014.05.30 17:11:14

Family offices are on the rise in South Korea. They have been founded by entrepreneurs who emerged as millionaires with assets valued at several hundred billion won ($1=1,020 won) through sale of their own start-ups. This ushers in the era of family office, a company set up by a rich individual to manage his own investments.  Read more of this post

Investors Reward Indonesian Retailers Expanding Outside of Java

Investors Reward Indonesian Retailers Expanding Outside of Java

By Reuters on 06:38 pm May 30, 2014

1.  Indonesian retail stocks are all trading at big premiums to the broader market but investors are increasingly differentiating between those which make their money mainly in Jakarta and favouring those which are expanding outside of the capital.

Rising wages and rental costs in Jakarta are making doing business there more expensive and eating into retailers’ profits. By contrast, retailers pursuing growth outside of Jakarta and the main island of Java are booking fast-growing profits. Read more of this post

CJ chairman back to jail after treatment

Updated : 2014-05-30 20:49

CJ chairman back to jail after treatment

By Kim Tae-gyu

CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun was taken back to prison Tuesday after two weeks of treatment at Seoul National University Hospital, but his health is still not good, a group official said Thursday.
“He is not in critical condition, having been stabilized early this month. But he is too weak to remain jailed,” he said. “He is so frail that he cannot even lift a cup on his own.” Read more of this post

Wallpaper boss lambasts Britain’s ‘naive’ export strategy, saying that Britain must adopt German model to help mid-sized companies to trade abroad

Entrepreneur attacks Britain’s export strategy

Wallpaper boss lambasts Britain’s ‘naive’ export strategy, saying that Britain must adopt German model to help mid-sized companies to trade abroad

By Rebecca Burn-Callander, Enterprise Editor

7:00AM BST 28 May 2014

The boss of luxury wallpaper retailer Graham & Brown has claimed the Government’s export strategy is “naïve”, “slow” and “bureaucratic”, and does not give sufficient support to mid-sized exporters. Read more of this post

Booking of contract revenue set to change; From 2017, firms must follow a 5-step model requiring more judgment, estimates

Booking of contract revenue set to change

Business Times

30 May 2014

Michelle Quah

From 2017, firms must follow a 5-step model requiring more judgment, estimates

[SINGAPORE] In what may be the biggest change in recent years in the manner companies prepare their accounts, the world’s global financial standards setting body has announced a substantial alteration in the way revenue is to be recognised. Read more of this post